1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a large volume face recognition apparatus and a method of large volume facial recognition, and more particularly, to a face recognition apparatus and method, by which large volume face images are quickly recognized using face retrieval and face verification.
2. Description of Related Art
A face recognition system to identify people by using a camera and a computer is one of the most prominent biometrics systems with respect to user convenience. Unlike other biometrics systems, a face recognition system does not require a password or a personal identification number (PIN), or any kind of physical contact like in a fingerprint recognition system or an iris recognition system.
Accordingly, increasingly and in various countries, face recognition technology identifying people using face characteristics and not using PIN numbers or fingerprints has been commercialized in financial organizations such as banks. Also, the face recognition systems can be applied to various applications such as password control systems in airports and ports, security gate control systems of high security buildings, electronic transactions using a super highway network, and devices for authenticating sanctioners or users in e-commerce operations.
However, a conventional face recognition procedure is time consuming since a face is recognized by sequentially comparing a current facial image input from a camera and facial images stored in a large volume database.